Amnesty accuses Yemen rebels of 'brutal' campaign against foes

Amnesty International on Wednesday accused Yemeni rebels of carrying out a “brutal” campaign of arbitrary arrests and torture of opponents since they seized the capital Sanaa in 2014. Shiite Huthi insurgents, who are backed by troops loyal to ousted president Ali Abdullah Saleh, have “carried out a wave of arrests of… opponents, arbitrarily seizing critics at gunpoint and subjecting some to enforced disappearance,” the rights watchdog said. Amnesty, in a statement, said “a spree of arbitrary arrests, disappearances and torture by Huthi forces to persecute opponents” was part of a “chilling campaign to quash dissent”.